The New White Man's Burden

published @ The Jakarta Post

To euphemize America’s colonization in the Philippines, Rudyard Kipling, a British writer, “justified” it as the white man’s burden to spread its superior civilization. Certainly, the true motive of colonization is self-serving. After centuries, the burden is still undertaken — America and its western allies still force its interests on the rest of the world, but now with the backfire of the migrant crisis in Europe.

The recent news is rife with the heart-rending stories of Syrian refugees. Prolonged civil war and Islamic State (IS) movement savagery force them to leave their homes. The root of the problem is partly the West’s interference in the conflict in Syria (and Middle East in general). But this takes place in the cloak of spreading democracy and defending human rights.

The Arab spring — the demand for democracy — engulfed the Middle East and North Africa a few years ago. But it turned out the West’s own geopolitical and economic profit takes precedence over democracy. The unintended consequence of Western intervention in the Middle East is the rise of IS. Moreover, this group would have never existed without support from Gulf countries and Turkey, the allies of the West. The West and its allies have helped create a monster that they now fear.

Now Iraq, Libya and Syria are torn apart; the economy has collapsed; public services have disappeared; the fabric of society unravels. So when all hopes dash, the people must flee their homelands. The recent migrant crisis is unprecedented. After four years in war, the Syrian refugees are the middle class. With their skills and education, they vote with their feet and seek asylum in Europe. This is the new white man’s burden. The West must in part take responsibility. Had the West not intervened the refugee crisis would have been non-existent.

The genie is out of the bottle. The West, particularly the US, says it supports human rights, now it is time for it to prove it by accepting these refugees.

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A President needs luck

published @ The Jakarta Post

A few weeks ago, a debate occurred on social media. A supporter of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono blamed President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo for Indonesia’s weakening economy. Brimming with confidence, the SBY supporter said that the economy had grown handsomely during his two-term presidency.

Is it true that SBY’s economic performance was better than Jokowi’s?

First of all, one can succeed by sheer luck. Luck means that external factors mostly determine success. It is just about being in the right time at the right place regardless of efforts or ability.

In terms of the economy, SBY took office at the right time. It was at a time when China’s economic rise reached its peak. China voraciously gobbled up commodities, including coal and crude palm oil (CPO), benefitting Indonesia as the world’s biggest exporter of the two products. This commodities export-led economy created a trickle-down effect, resulting in significant economic growth. Hence, SBY was lucky to get external key economic drivers without creating genuine initiatives.

The dependence of Indonesia’s economy on coal and CPO exports and China’s economy backfired at the end of SBY’s second term. When Indonesia’s economy was stuttering because of China’s slowdown, a lucky SBY completed his term and left the unfortunate situation to Jokowi.

So, SBY was definitely not better than Jokowi; he was just lucky. SBY was not alone. Former presidents Sukarno and Soeharto were lucky as well at certain periods during their long reigns.

Under Sukarno, Indonesia enjoyed an economic boom from skyrocketing rubber and tin exports that followed the Korean War in 1950. The country was able to begin development with the founding of shipping company PT Pelni and airline Garuda Indonesia to name a few.

Later, Sukarno fell from grace amid economic and political crises. History repeated itself under Soeharto. The oil boom that followed the Arab-Israel War in 1973 earned Indonesia windfall profits from oil exports, which Soeharto used to realize rice sufficiency and industrialization. When oil prices fell in 1998, Soeharto stepped down.

The lesson learned is the price of commodities — the external factor — have heavily influenced the performance of the Indonesian presidency. It can boost the economy, but the success is fragile and unsustainable. I hope Jokowi takes a different path.

It would be better he created key economic drivers through the internal aspect that he commands. Developing much-needed infrastructure, the agricultural and livestock industries to substitute imports, fishery and forestry-based industries, tourism, etc. is an opportunity that Jokowi has in hand.

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Bukittinggi: The Town That Killed Colonialism

published @ The Jakarta Post

Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesia’s most remarkable writer, once wrote a piece entitled The Book that Killed Colonialism. In it, he stressed the importance of Eduard Douwes Dekker’s 1859 novel Max Havelaar, which highlighted the misery wrought on Indonesians by the policy of forced cultivation. This book energized the liberal movement in the Netherlands, eventually leading to new, more ethical colonial policies, including Western education for Indonesians. 

Well, if a book can kill colonialism, then why shouldn’t a town be able to? That town is Bukittinggi. The back-story is the coffee trade and the scene is the Padri War.

Since the advent of Westerners arriving in West Sumatra, coffee as an export commodity had been thriving. To begin with, the Dutch held sway only in Padang and the surrounding coastal area. The coffee plantations were far inland. Then the Padri War broke out.

The war was ignited by a group of Wahabi-inspired clerics, recently returned from the Middle East. They insisted on the brutal implementation of fundamental Islam in the Minangkabau region. However, the clerics met resistance from traditional chiefs called the Kaum Adat. The war raged for decades.

In 1821, the embattled Kaum Adat asked for support from the Dutch in Padang. The Dutch were keen to help in order to safeguard their coffee supply chain and to gain power in areas where coffee was grown.

To strengthen their military position, the Dutch built the Fort de Kock in 1833 in the middle of the Agam plateau; the local Agam people named this colonial town Bukittinggi. The Dutch defeated the clerics in 1837.

To boost the economy, using the export of coffee as the backbone, the Dutch built infrastructure including schools and coffee warehouses, and trained locals to run the coffee-related businesses as well as the administration of the local government. The Minangkabau people were dragged into the modern era, giving birth to a class of Dutch-speaking local teachers, civil servants and intellectuals. This class and its offspring would later play a leading role in Indonesian independence.

A notably large proportion of Indonesian intellectuals involved in the struggle for independence were in some way related to Bukittinggi and nearby Koto Gadang, including Bung Hatta (1902-1980), Abdul Muis (1883-1959), Tan Malaka (1897-1949), Agus Salim (1884-1954) and Sutan Sjahrir (1907-1966).

Bung Hatta was a co-founder of the nation. Along with Bung Karno, he proclaimed and signed the declaration of Indonesian independence in 1945.

Tan Malaka was an underground fighter and a prolific writer. One of his books, Madilog, is still widely read. He also had the first clear vision of the country’s future, in 1925 writing an essay entitled Toward the Republic of Indonesia.

Both H. Agus Salim and Abdul Muis were activists in Sarekat Islam, the commercial-turned-political organization that spread nationalism all over the archipelago. Sutan Sjahrir was the first Indonesian prime minister. He played a key role in the 1946 Linggarjati agreement — the first negotiation between the Dutch and the formally declared Indonesian nation.

The Minangkabau people and their culture maximized the hidden benefits of Dutch rule, at least in part resulting in a consequence unintended by the colonialists: Indonesian independence.

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